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Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Grassroots and gerrymandering: IL GOP have "no troops to speak of".

Posted byRich Miller

Out of power for a dozen years and hobbled even before that by anti-patronage court rulings, the state’s Republican Party infrastructure has all but collapsed.

So, part of GOP gubernatorial nominee Bruce Rauner’s task he’s set for himself from here on out is to try and somehow rebuild a grassroots infrastructure.

It won’t be an easy job. Republicans have never, in the modern age, been able to match the Democrats’ ability to dispatch patronage armies to the state’s distant corners because of the Democrats’ Chicago and Cook County patronage bases The Republicans’ local organizations are essentially hollow these days, and they have no troops to speak of.